


Take Your Dreams Outside (It's All Right)

by delightfulalot



Category: Disney RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-02
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-02-03 03:24:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1729295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/delightfulalot/pseuds/delightfulalot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“We should do this one day,” he says quietly, his chest rumbling as he speaks. She can hear his voice bouncing around inside her head, practically feel him in her bones. </em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Your Dreams Outside (It's All Right)

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm working on a Joe/Demi fic, but I'm rewriting constantly, and I don't think this section fits in anymore, so here you go! It's set in the future. Title is from an Edie Brickell song, "Stay Awhile."

Halfway through the reception, after dinner but before cake, Joe finds Demi leaning against a wall, hands behind her back, watching people spinning across the dance floor. She looks just like she did right before he kissed her for real the first time.  He smiles as he reaches her, holds out the glass of champagne in his hand. She shakes her head as she smiles back, a hand snaking out toward his empty one. ****

“Having fun?” he asks, tickling the palm of her hand lightly. She moves her fingers, trying to tickle him back, as she says, “It’s a nice party.”  
   
“A lot of the Jonas family,” he says, downing most of the champagne in one gulp. “They’re a little overwhelming.”

“A little,” she says, and her voice betrays her, sounding just as nervous as she doesn’t want to let on she feels.

“Hey,” Joe says, knocking her shoulder with his. “Everyone likes you, you know that.”

“I know,” she says. The entire Jonas family is just as polite and pleasant as Joe’s immediate family, which isn’t surprising. Somehow, Danielle’s family is even more polite. “Still. It’s a little stifling.”

Joe downs the rest of the champagne, and then squeezes her hand. “Come on. Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” Demi asks, but she’s already allowing Joe to lead her through the tables and around the dance floor. “And how many of those have you had?”

He sets the now empty flute on the nearest table, and looks back at her, a grin on his face. “Enough to make you a really happy person.” She laughs. She’s recently come to learn that the more Joe drinks, the hornier and more insanely confident he gets. “Now stop asking questions.” She rolls her eyes, but complies, and pretty soon he’s leading her to the back entrance, and then out the door to the park behind the church center. She shivers involuntarily when a sudden burst of cold air hits her bare shoulders. He glances back at her and then pulls her until she’s closer to him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.  He leads her across the grass towards a sycamore tree, and when they get there he shrugs off his jacket and sets it on the ground.

“Thank you,” she says, smoothing her skirt as she sits down, tucking her legs beneath her.

“My pleasure,” he says. He sprawls on the ground next to her, legs splayed out in front of him, back pushed up against the trunk of the tree.

She snorts. “Your mom’s gonna kill you if you get grass stains on your tux shirt.”

“I’ve got about seven billion, Dems,” he says. He raises his eyebrows at her, and then closes his eyes.

“I know.” She sighs. “Sometimes I just want to pretend like we’re normal.”

“We’re normal,” he says sleepily. When she makes a noise of disbelief, he repeats, “We _are_. There aren’t any paparazzi here. It’s just family.”

“And some of Billboard’s top artists, and an actor or two from a major summer blockbuster.”

“As friends. Come on, this is the most normal we’ve been in years.” Without opening his eyes, he reaches to wrap an arm around her waist. He pulls too hard and she goes sprawling across his chest. He grins.

“Joe!” she exclaims, trying to sit back up. He just keeps his arm tightened around her. She gives up after a minute, choosing instead to make herself comfortable, tucked into him. She’s probably getting grass stains all over her bridesmaid dress – the jacket meant to be protecting it is now all twisted up under them – but then Joe makes this noise that he only makes when they’re alone, and she doesn’t seem to care about her dress. She closes her eyes and focuses on the motion of his chest softly moving up and down with each breath. Up. Down. In. Out.

“We should do this one day,” he says quietly, his chest rumbling as he speaks. She can hear his voice bouncing around inside her head, practically feel him in her bones.

“What?” she asks, sounding sleepy and lazy and all those good things she likes to be when she’s curled into Joe.

“Have a big party with all our friends and family. Eat cake. Dance the night away.”

She rearranges herself so she can look at him, setting her chin on his chest. “We’re doing that right now.”

He opens his eyes. “No. I mean, _we_ should do this.” He sounds serious now, not as sleepy as before. It takes a minute before she understands what he’s saying, and he doesn’t take his gaze away from her until recognition blooms in her eyes.

“Are you saying?” is all she manages to get out. She pushes herself up, feeling the silk of her dress rub against the grass as she awkwardly rearranges herself until she is sitting above Joe, looking down at him. He takes a moment, and then answers her in-articulated question by pushing himself up until they are sharing the same space again. He nods, and reaches a hand, now cold and clammy from the grass, to cup her cheek.

“I’m saying,” he says, leaning in to kiss her. She kisses him back, because she can’t _not_ , but her mind is reeling, and she doesn’t know what she’s going to say, what she’s going to do, when they separate, and then his lips are leaving hers and she has to say something.

“I, uh…I don’t know how to answer that.”

“It wasn’t a question,” he says, placing a kiss in the hollow spot at the base of her neck.

“Well, technically that’s true, but…. Really, Joe, I….” she trails off. He moves away from her, stops touching her, looks at her. She shrugs and throws her hands in the air. He leans back onto his elbows.

“Is this too much for you?”

Sometimes he infuriates her, really he does. He can’t just _say_ something like that to her and then lounge around under trees. She’s barely 20! They’ve only been dating for 2 years! He’s _Joe Jonas_. She never thought he’d be the first one to bring this up.

“I –“ she says. She pauses, collects her thoughts. She tries to, anyway. She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. She can hear the steady bass thump of the standard wedding receptions songs coming from the church center, the faint chorus of “ _Y, M, C A_.” She can smell the grass, freshly mown this morning before the ceremony. She can feel a cold creep into the air; the rain they’ve been promising for a week is finally on its way. She can’t figure out what she needs to say.

She opens her eyes, sighs. Joe hasn’t moved, looks just the same he did before, except for the faintest of smirks hidden beneath his serious expression. She huffs and pushes herself up, ignoring the hand Joe holds out. Now she’s standing, towering over him. He once told her he really liked to look up at her, because it was a sight he rarely saw. Now, she turns herself away from him, looking back at the glass walls of the church center, the wedding guests inside dancing away. She hears a rustling but refuses to look, doesn’t realize she’s shivering until Joe wraps his jacket around her and she feels warm.

“Do you want me to actually ask?”

She looks over her shoulder at him. His face is serious; the smirk is gone.

“Is that it? Do you want to know that I’m serious about it? Because I am. This isn’t some spur of the moment decision made through a champagne and wedding haze.”

He reaches into his pocket, his hand shaking. She vaguely recalls a post on Just Jared a few weeks ago, one claiming that Nick and Joe were seen at several different jewelry stores around the city. She’d called Joe right after she’d gotten off the phone with Selena, and Joe had laughed it off. “Kevin and Danielle supposedly got engaged about five times before they actually did,” he had said, and she had laughed with him.

Now she knows it was true.

He pulls a small black velvet box out and almost immediately drops it to the ground.

“Oh! I’m nervous,” he says, bending down to pick it up. Demi beats him to it, the crinoline in her dress crinkling as she squats down and scoops it up. She stares at it for a minute.

“This is for real?”

He nods.

She starts to pry the box open, but snaps it shut before she can see anything. She squeezes her eyes shut, shoves the box at Joe.

“You do it.”

He clears his throat a few times. She hears the box creak open and peeks a look through one eye. He’s on one knee in front of her and, oh, even though she knew it was coming, the sight manages to take her breath away. She opens both her eyes, looks straight at him.

“Demi, will you marry me?” He sounds nervous. His hair has a twig in it. His shirt is rumpled and already spots a small green stain on the side. His eyes are sparkling in anticipation. Her heart speeds up. She smiles, and he lets out a huge gush of air before she even answers.

“Yes,” she says, and he whoops and stands up and wraps his arms around her waist, lifting her off the ground. She laughs delightedly.

***

The first thing Demi notices when she and Joe enter the hospital room is that both Kevin and Danielle look completely exhausted and insanely happy. The second thing she notices is the tiny bundle in Danielle's arms, the reason they're there.

"Hi!" she whispers, practically zooming to the bed. "Oh, she's adorable!"

"Man, congratulations again," Joe says, hugging his brother.

"Thanks," Kevin beams. "I just can't believe it's real, you know? We made a little human being."

"And she's _here_ ," Danielle says, beaming down at the baby. She looks up at Demi. "Want to hold her?"

"Yes," Demi says immediately. Danielle lifts the baby into Demi's arms, making sure to say, "Support her head," though Demi still remembers from when she was eight and Madison was born.

Holding the first baby that anyone from their group of friends has had, she feels old, suddenly. They're starting the next generation right here, and even though Kevin's closer to 30 than 20, it doesn't seem entirely true. Weren't they all just having tea parties and sharing crayons and building forts in the living room? Where did the time go?

Joe wraps an arm around her waist, looking at the baby over her shoulder. "She's beautiful," he says.

"She's _perfect_ ," Demi corrects him. She's starting to tear up, like some big dumb _girl_ , so she hands the baby to Kevin, who's seated himself on the hospital bed next to Danielle. Demi wipes at her eyes with one hand and watches as they both stare at the baby in awe, a brand new family. 

"You know," Joe says into her ear, " _We_ should--"

That's as far as he gets before Demi slams her elbow into his gut.


End file.
